August – Week 3 Summary

20Aug

August 15, 2011

Honestly, how do they keep from laughing when they open their mouths. Texan Governor and Rep. Presidential runner, Rick Perry, in a blatant display of how little he understands…life in general, said to a reporter, “We’re calling today on the President of the United States to put a moratorium on regulations across the country, his EPA regulations are killing jobs all across America.” Seriously, does he belief the shit that spews from his mouth? Let’s break this down.

“moratorium on regulations” – Now, I’d like to think he’s talking only about EPA regulations, but he doesn’t start out that way, and we’re talking about a less than mentally stable Republican, so who knows. Let’s pretend for a moment that he wants to end all regulations, lock stock and barrel, what would happen as a result of that. The publisher of this article online went to the trouble to assemble a list of what beneficial regulations would be included in an elimination that thorough.

FDA would no longer approve new drugs or prosecute manufacturers of dangerous ones, and prevent human experimentation.

USDA would no longer be inspecting facilities for food safety

EPA would no longer monitor for toxins in drinking water

Library of Congress would stop loaning materials to blind people

NTSB would no longer investigate airplane accidents

HHS would stop Medicare payments

Patents, copyrights and trademarks would no longer be issued

DHS would stop protecting chemical facilities from terrorist attacks

The Treasury would end the production of currency

The Federal Reserve would shut down

“his EPA regulations are killing jobs all across America” – The Republican’s continued use of this argument is making me nauseous. First off, many of those nasty regulations are keeping us safe and protecting our environment. I realize, that many conservatives believe that the scientific evidence behind our environmental issues are nothing more than wizardry and witchcraft. At any rate, these regulations aren’t killing jobs, has he forgotten that our economy is in the toilet. The EPA didn’t put it there, poor financial decisions and OOH, get this, the elimination of crucial financial regulations put it there. Eliminating the EPA regulations wouldn’t fix our joblessness, nor would eliminating all regulations. I love when they’re rebuttal includes, “the industry will self-regulate.” Now that’s hilarious, I wonder if they realize that the reasons these regulations exist is because the industry wouldn’t self-regulate. Why doesn’t he just admit it, the Republicans have been attacking regulations because their corporate masters instructed them to do so (Rick Perry received nearly $30 million in campaign contributions from corporations), the unemployment is nothing more than a convenient target to pin it on to help earn votes. (Full story on ThinkProgress)

August 17, 2011

Alright, get ready for some mind warping logic. Since this week I seem to be stuck on Rick Perry, we’ll talk about him again. Conservatives and Republicans seem to believe that the warnings from research scientists on climate change are bogus. Well…its probably more like, the Republicans are getting money from the very same corporations contributing to climate change and they want to make sure those checks keep coming, so they’ll say anything. The conservative followers believe whatever Fox tells them (which essentially just repeats and gold plates the bullshit coming from Republicans) then like a parrot repeat those arguments so they don’t have to feel guilty about driving their 10 MPG SUV. Anyhow, Wednesday morning, Rick Perry was talking some shit again climate scientists. Mr. Perry said, “I do believe that the issue of global warming has been politicized. I think there were a substantial number of scientists who have manipulated data so that they will have dollars rolling into their projects. I think we’re seeing it almost weekly or even daily, scientists who are coming forward and questioning the original idea that man-made global warming is what is causing the climate to change. Yes, our climate changes. They’ve been changing ever since the earth was formed.” Yes, it’s been politicized, you’re doing it right now Rick, you and all your Republican friends, attacking the findings of scientists to protect the oil company’s profits. Proof? You want proof? Here how’s this, Rick Perry’s top industrial contributor is…none other than…Oil & Gas (at $11 million). Damn, in the grand scheme of thing, that’s some cheap albeit subtle advertising. When you combine this attack of scientific evidence with Rick’s comments on the EPA you can see exactly why he feels this way. I just can’t understand why his followers believe the words coming out of his mouth when he’s getting nearly double what any other industry contributes to him from oil and gas. Furthermore, pot, I’d like to introduce you to kettle. (Full story on EnviroKnow)

August 18, 2011

Notre Dame political scientist, David E. Campbell, says they have collected data indicating that the tea party is less popular than atheists and Muslims among a sampling of 3,000 Americans. In fact, the tea party ended up being with a lower approval than 23 other entries in the survey, including Barack Obama, Sarah Palin, Republicans and Democrats. While studying those respondents that became supporters of the tea party movement they realized that the tea party today isn’t what it was intended to be when it started out. Campbell, and his research partner Robert Putnam, mentioned that early tea partiers were often described as “nonpartisan political neophytes” but the tea partiers of today are instead “highly partisan Republicans” who were more likely than others to have contacted government officials. Their research also confirmed a lot of the stereotypes often associated with the tea party, overwhelmingly white, with a low regard for immigrants and blacks, and deeply religious. None of these things are surprising really. The biggest problem I have with the tea party is their loud, overwhelming support for candidates that don’t know better than to keep their religion out of our government. (i.e. Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann) They shout that this country was founded on Christian principles, it wasn’t, and they act as though Christianity is the master religion and that this country should be lead in a Christian fashion, it was never intended to be. They complain about their Constitutional rights being taken away, whilst hypocritically forgetting about the parts of the Constitution that get in their way (freedom of religion, freedom of speech, etc.). The last thing this country needs is to be overseen by a bunch of self-serving, self-righteous, religious nuts who think they know what’s best for everyone. That will only lead to persecution of homosexuals and differing religions (probably even genocide, but its okay to kill, because they’re sinning), restriction of freedoms including censorship, among a host of other atrocities that will only further lead to the destruction of this country. I’m sorry, but seeing that the tea party is less favorable than Sarah Palin, actually brings a great big smile to my face. (Full story on Yahoo)

Random Quote

"They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying to get what they want … Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else... Good honest hard-working people continue to elect these rich cocksuckers who don’t give a fuck about you..." - George Carlin

Random Quote

"If you want to see the true measure of a man, watch how he treats his inferiors, not his equals." -J.K. Rowling

Random Quote

"Every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies...A theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." - Dwight D. Eisenhower